No Death Penalty for Accused Man

Published
7:00 pm EST, Thursday, January 3, 2002

Prosecutors said Friday they will not seek the death penalty against a former death row inmate accused in a pair of slayings.

Jack Mazzan, 54, spent more than 20 years on death row before his conviction was overturned in the killing of a judge's son. He was free, awaiting retrial, when he was charged in September with slaying the young man's girlfriend.

At a pretrial hearing, prosecutors said they lack the aggravating circumstances necessary for capital convictions. District Judge Peter Breen scheduled trial to begin April 15.

Mazzan's conviction in the 1978 stabbing death of Richard Minor Jr. was overturned because prosecutors withheld information about other possible suspects.

Minor's girlfriend, April Barber, was also fatally stabbed in 1978.

No one had ever been charged in her death, but authorities accused Mazzan after tests showed traces of Barber's DNA on a pair of tennis shoes at his home.

The defense contends the evidence was tainted after being improperly stored more than 20 years.